Australian manufacturing performance software company OFS has announced its first US customer, Oregon based craft brewery Pelican Brewing Company.
Pelican produces around 50,000 barrels – almost six million litres or 14 million schooners – every year from its three breweries on the Portland coast.
OFS is widely used in the local craft brewing sector to help reduce wastage and increase output by providing accurate production line data. Clients include Stomping Ground Brewing Co., East Coast Canning, Tribe Breweries, Brick Lane Brewing, Stone & Wood, and Capital Brewing.
OFS CEO James Magee believes its software could become the de facto standard for the US craft brewing industry as well.
“We conducted an industry report focusing on US and Australian brewers and found that craft brewers typically spend more than half their time not making beer,” said Magee.
The team at Pelican wanted a software solution that could provide better insights to help identify and resolve issues, improve efficiency, and reduce waste.
Pelican Brewing Company director of brewing operations Martin Bills said previous software couldn’t provide the necessary levels of automation or real-time data.
“My ears are well trained – I can tell if there’s an issue on the line, and in time I can figure out the cause. But OFS gives me and my team that information in real time so we can resolve it and get back to making beer,” Bills said.
The OFS software uses sensors to draw real-time data from Pelican’s filling and packing lines. It combines the data with insights from the people operating the line to identify and reduce inefficiencies and waste.
It has come into its own for Pelican during the beginning of production each day, by identifying any inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the methods and time taken for sanitation and initial quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) checks. Optimising these processes has flow-on benefits for the rest of the production process.
The implementation of OFS hardware and software at Pelican was completed in less than one day.
Another significant discovery during the OFS trial was the software identifying the cardboard boxes used on the bottling line weren’t being folded correctly due to quality issues, resulting in one of the biggest causes of unplanned downtime.
Pelican used the data to hold the supplier to account by demonstrating the amount of lost time that had stemmed from poor quality product.
OFS also highlighted hundreds of minor stops that had largely gone unnoticed at the filler and crowner, which fills and caps beer bottles. The data uncovered highlighted the opportunities, costs, and issues that needed to be resolved.
The software system also found one of Pelican’s canning lines had lost almost a day’s worth of production due to running slower than its rated/costed speed. The team identified several key reasons behind this and performed experiments to improve speed, which during the trial phase alone led to a speed increase of more than 10 per cent.
“We’re enjoying much higher visibility across our brewing operations,” said Bills.
“Over time, that data can inform our expansion and ensure we’re maximising our efficiency and reducing waste as we increase output. As a passionate brewer, we simply want to make more exceptional beer for our customers.”
